Transform Your Garden with these 5 Spring Garden Plants

5  plants for your spring and summer garden including wisteria, tea roses, and a few more of my favorites that will bring you amazing color during the spring and summer season.

I love this time of the year around Duke Manor Farm! I get so excited to see color from all the pretty blooms and the green from the trees and grasses. I can do without the weeds, but that’s all part of it. 🙂 

In the early stages of creating my landscape beds and gardens, I invested ALOT in annuals for instant color. These days I may get by with a few annuals for the porch. Everything else providing color around Duke Manor Farm is perennials. Today, I am not only a wiser gardener but have a few more bucks in my pocket.

Recently I have been using an app called ‘Picture This’. The app helps to identify plants and provides all the details you need for successfully growing (planting conditions, watering,  etc) Basically you take a picture of the plant with your phone ( I have an iPhone), and within seconds it will give you the name of the plant and any other info that you need. I highly recommend checking the app out to see if it is something that would be helpful to you.

5 Vibrant Spring and Summer Plants

Here are 5 plants that are seasonal garden favorites for your spring and summer garden.

Bearded Iris

Years ago my sweet neighbor came over with a box of Bearded Iris bulbs. My Iris probably doesn’t do as they should because I don’t divide the plants as often as I should. The plant does well in shallow ground and will naturalize each year. When not in bloom, the green leaves will remain until the winter. The plant does best in full sun and has average watering needs.

Wisteria

You either love or hate wisteria. Its fragrance and beautiful purple flowers are to love. It is super evasive and will cling to anything is not to love. I have cut this particular vine down a couple of times…..see what I mean. It keeps ongoing and doesn’t stop. Last year I built this wood/wire structure for the vine to climb on but often have to clip back when it ventures out. Wisteria can adapt to the sun or shade, is super hardy, and can grow in just about any soil condition including good ole Georgia clay.

Check out the wreath I made using wisteria vine.

Tea Roses

Tea Roses will bloom Spring and Summer….nonstop. Originally I had these planted around the pool 4 years ago and moved them to the backyard pond last year. This year I am definitely enjoying their beauty. These roses do better when temps don’t get too hot. The ideal temp is 50-75 degrees.  I water my roses weekly during the bloom season and as needed afterward.

Spiderwort

Spiderwort is a light green grass-like plant with pretty purple flowers. What’s interesting is that they bloom in the morning, and by noon the show is over. They prefer partial sun to partial shade. I have these by the backyard pond (partial shade) and by the pool (full sun) and both areas do very well. Average water needs aka water as needed. You can also grow spiderwort inside, something I may have to consider.

Lantana

I love lantana. I use to treat it as an annual but now my plants seem to pop up every Spring. Lantana works great as a border plant ( I use it around the pond) and can form a thick hedge. Flowers from the plant have been shown to have mosquito-repelling properties although can be toxic for cattle, horses, and goats. Lantana loves the heat and blooms will be present from late Spring through the Fall. The lantana below is commonly referred to as ‘confetti” because of the mix of colors. You can also find it in solid purple, orange, and yellow color.

I hope my recommendations for spring garden plants will inspire you in your own garden this season. For more of my gardening tips and plant recommendations, click here.

More gardening posts

Getting the most out of your garden using containers

Seed starting using peat pellets

Simple tips to care for houseplants

Happy gardening!

Grateful

for the beautiful outdoors